Report: “LGBT+ People Erased From Books in Russia With ‘Gay Propaganda’ Law”

“Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls”, a bestselling children’s book featuring 100 stories of prominent women, was published in Russia this year – but with one story missing.

Liza Lazerson, a feminist blogger who owns a copy, said she was surprised to see that while the cover promised 100 stories the book contained only 99 and one blank page – supposedly for the reader to add their own.

“But then a follower sent me a photo of Coy Mathis’s story from the French edition,” Lazerson, who is based in Moscow, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in written comments.

Mathis, an 11-year-old transgender girl from the United States, won a landmark victory in a 2013 case against her school allowing her to use the girl’s bathroom.

[Clip]

The Russian news site Takie Dela has quoted the publisher as saying that it excised the story due to Russia’s 2013 ban on the spreading “propaganda for non-traditional sexual relations” to minors.

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.